(860) 251-9004

Communities & Agencies Watch Your Search Rankings. The Google Engine Made an Update



The Google team responsible for search, recently announced an update to the engine behind the beast. This is the biggest update they've made in 12 years. They call this latest update hummingbird. Here's some details if you want to read more.

We're still waiting to hear all the details about it, but from what I know, it's geared to analyze searches and return answers to questions versus just looking at keywords independently. I have a droid phone and notice now a woman like siri responds to my questions when I use the voice search.  She tends to keeps me company when the sox are playing and I'm on the road.  🙂

[Read more…]

3 Ways to Optimize Your Senior Living Community’s Social Media



This is an article I wrote for RetirementHomes.com. Full article here http://www.retirementhomes.com/library/3-ways-optimize-your-senior-living-communitys-social-media/

This 4th of July weekend, me and my girlfriend saw some fireworks. The town nearby was having an event Saturday night at the high school.

The school was surrounded by giant overhanging oak trees. They must have been 175 years old. Once we went under these massive oaks, a hill opened up to a beautiful valley and at the bottom was a stage an instrumental band. They were playing Frank Sinatra and classical music from American composers. It really felt like the 4th of July, and it was an exciting time.

Just before dusk something happened that I haven’t seen done on the 4th. While we were waiting for the fireworks, people were lighting lanterns that would float up into the sky. They were fascinating to me because some had neat patriotic designs, and they went up, and up, and up really fast!

These people were lighting 4,5, 6 at a time, and they would fly till you couldn’t see them anymore. We were really fascinated by this, and so were a lot of people around us. The little kids were shouting, “Mommy, mommy, look at the lan-tuns”!

[Read more…]

4 Ways Senior Living Communities Can Speak In Their Consumer’s Own Language.



We recently ran a survey here at SeniorMarketing.com about the words we use to describe senior living. Our survey results prove, prospect’s feel disconnected by the typical language used by a community. It’s usually a much different language than they normally speak.

So if the typical language is offending and disconnecting seniors, how can we learn to use the language our consumers are using to connect with them emotionally?

Traditionally, this required focus groups and surveys, but today much of your research can be done online. Following are 4 simple ways you can use today to discover the language your prospects use.

[Read more…]

How To Value Your Residents, Form Realistic Marketing Budgets, And Cut Expenses By Understanding The Lifeblood Of Smart Senior Living Marketing.



Stop Money Sucking, Mind Numbing, Wasteful Marketing Strategies

The definition of the word investment according to dictionary.com is as follows:

Investment – The investing of money or capital in order to gain profitable returns, as interest, income, or appreciation in value.

Imagine for a moment, that I were to approach you with an amazing investment opportunity. I’d tell you about how much money you’d make, and all you’d have to do is give me a couple thousand dollars.

But there’s one catch….

During the life of that investment, we would have no clue how it performs, no way to track it, and we would only know how much money was made after the investment was sold.

Would you invest in that?

Of course not.

Marketing Absolutely Must Be Viewed As An Investment!

If you were to invest $5,000 in a marketing campaign, and you get 2 new residents out of that campaign, then obviously those residents are going to be worth more than $2,500. On average, the value of those residents are worth anywhere from $60,000-$70,000. Talk about a great return on investment!

This is where the lifeblood of smart senior living marketing comes into play. At SeniorMarketing.com we focus exclusively on senior living and home care, and the fundamentals of everything we do is based on the lifeblood of smart marketing. We eat sleep and breathe it!

[Read more…]

How to Capture Online Prospects in the Senior Living Buying Cycle



This is an article I wrote for Retirementhomes.com

Just like our eyes can capture only a sliver of the full spectrum of light, the keywords our prospects type into search engines are a sliver of a conversation inside their heads.

Understand this conversation and you’ll be able to beat out your competition the majority of the time. The rest of this article is to help you uncover this conversation.

What Do Keywords Have To Do With The Buying Cycle?

When your prospects begin searching for senior living, they may or may not be educated in the market. Very rarely are they going to make one search, call your community and become a member.

They will do many searches! And their searches are going to reflect their level of education into senior living.

Keywords tell a story within someone’s head at that very moment. And what a valuable moment it is for us when they’re searching for senior living.

I want you to stop for a minute and think about the conversation inside someone’s head when they make a search for senior living. Really imagine the emotions they’re going through when they are typing into the search engines.

Maybe their parent just had a fall and they need a rehab community, or maybe a person is so overwhelmed caring for their spouse that they can’t handle it anymore. They’re in pain, tired, fed up, looking to get their relationship back with their loved one, and not be the caregiver any more.

Here’s what your prospect’s search patterns may look like. An adult child in Middletown CT may start searching “different types of senior living communities.” Later, once they’re a little more educated, they may come back and search for “assisted living in Middletown CT”.

Then, they may come back and search “skilled nursing in Middletown ct,” and then even later, when they realize their parent with dementia needs a community with specialized care, “dementia care Middletown CT.” Once they have found a specific community, they may end the process with “The Community name” they want to schedule a tour with.

[Read more…]